Cracking the whip on the real estate sector, the National Green Tribunal on Thursday passed a slew of directions to check air pollution caused by dust emanating from construction sites in the National Capital Region (NCR), as it made wearing of masks by construction workers mandatory. “Every worker working on the construction site or engaged in loading and unloading of building materials shall be provided with masks and the owner or builder will be under obligation to provide them so,” a bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said, adding that any developer, if found violating the orders, shall be liable to pay a fine of Rs50,000.
The green bench held that “all corporations, authority or instrumentality of State vested with the power of sanctioning a plan, drawings for construction for any commercial, residential or construction of any small plots would impose a clear condition that sanction of plan is subject to strictly compliance of the MoEF 2010 guidelines on raising construction”. “Such authorities shall forthwith issue notices to all the builders raising any kind of construction to comply with the guidelines,” the bench said. It also directed every builder and owner to put tarpaulin sheets around area of construction and said no person including builder and owner would be permitted to throw construction material particularly sand on the roads or inside colonies.
“Construction material of any kind that is stored at the building site will be properly covered so that it does not disperse through air. All construction material and debris shall be carried in trucks or vehicles which are fully covered. “Dust emissions from construction sites will be completely controlled by all authorities and the vehicles used for transportation of building material shall be properly cleaned before it is permitted to ply on the roads,” the Bench said while asking the builders to plant trees in large numbers to create a green belt. The tribunal also directed all concerned authorities to take appropriate measures to ensure that all these directions as well as its earlier directions are complied with.